Adopt a rainforest

     The enthusiasm of my friend Korbin Duley at Cuipo.org prompts me to post once again after long quiescence here at Culinary Heritage. After years of seeing signs along highways proclaiming that some fast food joint "adopted" a highway I have issues with this use of the word, adopt, even though I am glad that the process contributes to cleanup. Something temporary and too commercial about it, and I have suspected that the stretch of road could be un-adopted at will and then perhaps re-adopted by some other commercial entity - oh wait, corporations are persons now, I forgot - I mean, person.


   Here is something permanent: adopt a square meter of rainforest for five dollars. Or more! Look it up on google maps and show your kids, friends, coworkers, and employer- who may make a matching gift. It will make a permanent difference to the ecology of the earth and the five dollars will come back to you in so many good ways. Along with adoption, you merely pledge to protect this parcel of land by acting with care regarding the things you do every day. You can make up your own pledge or follow something like this:


  I will buy organic foods grown using sustainable farming.
  I will carpool to work with friends 2 days per week
  I will recycle my newspapers
  I will use reusable grocery bags instead of paper and plastic
  I will recycle plastic
  I will buy locally grown vegetables to reduce my carbon footprint

  So please, go to the Cuipo.org site, read about it, look at the stunning videos, and maybe next time you see one of those highway signs, you will remember you did something pretty cool. By the way, a Cuipo is a tree, Cavanillesia platanifolia, that is extremely large and grows in such places as Panama, and depicted in this photograph and this beautiful painting by  Ricardo Sanchez Beitia. See his other work at http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/ricardo-sanchez-beitia.html